Video

Bob Baptist's tweets

'Hoops & Scoops' blog

More men's basketball

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoNEAL C. LAURONFreshman Deshaun Thomas came off the bench to score a game-high 22 points on 7-of-9 shooting to lead Ohio State. He also had four rebounds.

Men's basketball: Freshman sparks OSU rout of Indiana -

For much of this season, Ohio State coach Thad Matta has been accustomed to seeing the ball go
in the basket more often than not for his team. The Buckeyes lead the Big Ten and rank second
nationally in field-goal percentage.

Matta wasn't nearly as thrilled, though, when opponents began doing the same.

So after five teams in a row had shot better than 50 percent against the Buckeyes, he decided to
seek outside counsel before a game against Indiana today.

"I reached out to the master," Matta said.

He called Bob Knight, who had no qualms about helping the coach of his alma mater beat the
school that fired him 11 years ago after an unparalleled run of success.

"He gave me this defensive drill," Matta said. "Our players hate it, but I think it made us play
a lot better."

The second-ranked Buckeyes held Indiana to 38.5 percent shooting from the field today in winning
82-61 in Value City Arena and maintaining their one-game lead over Purdue in the Big Ten standings
with two games to play.

Freshman Deshaun Thomas scored a game-high 22 points off the bench for second-ranked Ohio State
(27-2 overall, 14-2 Big Ten), which could return to No.1 in the Associated Press poll when it is
released on Monday. Top-ranked Duke lost at Virginia Tech on Saturday night.

The Buckeyes were No.1 for four weeks earlier this season before losing at Wisconsin on
Feb.12.

William Buford added 15 points and David Lighty and Jon Diebler 11 apiece for Ohio State, which
beat Indiana (12-17, 3-13) for the sixth consecutive time, the Buckeyes' longest win streak in a
series that dates to 1905.

Verdell Jones III led the Hoosiers with 14 points.

Lighty said the focus going into the game was on the defense "getting back to where we started
at the beginning of the season. I think we did a pretty good job of that, holding them under 40
percent shooting. That's something we kind of keyed on after giving up 50 percent the last couple
of games."

The last five to be precise, against Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Purdue and Illinois.
The Buckeyes were 3-2 in that stretch after entering it 23-0.

Matta was dissatisfied with his players' awareness on defense, and said the drill Knight gave
him -which Knight had used since he coached at West Point in the 1960s - addressed that.

"We played five-on-four for 15 minutes, and the four people on defense were the main people that
play," guard Aaron Craft said.

"It made us run around. It worked. I think we played a lot harder tonight. We played well in
practice when we just went with four guys, and we had a fifth tonight."

While Thomas was scoring 16 points in the first half - 14 consecutively in just 3 minutes, 36
seconds - Indiana had only two field goals and six points in a span of nearly 14 minutes and fell
behind 38-23 at halftime.

Ohio State increased its advantage to 51-27 in the first four minutes of the second half and led
by as many as 27 points before Matta emptied the bench in the final minutes.

"He wants us to do well. It's unbelievable. I love talking to him because, No.1, you get so much
basketball-wise. And then you get a lesson in history. And then you laugh your (rear end) off
because he's one of the funniest human beings I've ever talked to."

Ohio State can clinch at least a share of its fourth Big Ten championship in six years on
Tuesday night with a win at Penn State or a Purdue loss to Illinois. If both occur, the Buckeyes
would win their third outright title in that span.